THIS WEEKEND
Dartmouth will head out for its first road games since Nov.
24 when it takes on Quinnipiac and Princeton in hostile environments Friday and
Saturday. Since that contest at Boston College, the Big Green have played four
straight at home, winning three.

BATTLE AT THE TOP The Friday night tilt with the Bobcats will feature the top two teams in the
ECAC Hockey standings this season. Quinnipiac has played eight league games so
far this year, winning each to sit atop the standings with 16 points. Dartmouth
has played two fewer contests and boasts a 4-1-1 mark for nine points.

SOME MORE FACETIMEFor the second time in the last three games and for the
third time this season, the Big Green will square off in a televised match-up
Friday evening. The game with Quinnipiac will be broadcast live on the New
England Sports Network (NESN) with Bill Schweizer and Rich Coppola providing
play-by-play and color commentary.

NEVER BEEN HIGHERDespite a loss to UMass, Dartmouth enters the weekend as the
eighth-ranked team in the nation according to the most recent USCHO poll. The
Green and White had been ranked 10th for the last four weeks before Sunday's
win over No. 2 New Hampshire moved them up to No. 8, it's highest ranking ever
since the inception of the current polling system in the mid 1990s. The team
also earned a first-place vote in the poll, the first ever for the program.

LAST TIME OUTDartmouth's last outing was a tough one as it suffered just its third loss of
the season, this time coming at the hands of UMass in the 2012 Ledyard Classic
Championship Game. The one-goal defeat (3-2) followed a 4-1 win over
second-ranked UNH at a sold-out Thompson Arena Sunday in the preliminary round.

TOURNAMENT TEAM TALENTSophomore Tyler Sikura and senior co-captain Mike Keenan
were named to the 2012 Ledyard Classic All-Tournament Team for their two-game
performances. Keenan was as solid a defender as there was on the ice all
weekend and Sikura scored once and assisted on another in the games against the
Wildcats and Minutemen.

GOALTENDER OF THE WEEKFor the second time this season and the third time in his
career, junior Cab Morris was tabbed as the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week.
The accolade came thanks in large part to his career-best 31 saves Sunday night
in the 4-1 win over the Green's Granite State rival. Overall, Morris finished
the weekend with 57 stops.

HECK OF A TIME FOR HIS FIRSTOne of the most highly-touted incoming players in college
hockey this season, Nick Bligh had gone his first seven games without a goal.
That unwanted streak ended just 6:05 into Sunday night's game as his shot from
the high slot beat UNH's Casey DeSmith for the game's first goal and the first
in Bligh's Dartmouth career.

HECK OF A TIME FOR HIS FIRST AS WELLFollowing Bligh's first career marker, freshman defender
Ryan Bullock also notched the first in a Big Green sweater with a redirected
shot from the point. For Bullock, it was
not only his first tally, but also his first collegiate point.

SOME CALLS WERE MADEAgainst UMass, a combined 87 penalty minutes were handed out
by the officiating crew on 23 calls. Dartmouth was whistled for 13 of those
penalties, totaling 40 PIMs. Entering the game, the Green ranked as the least
penalized team in the nation at 8.2 per game and had only once had as many as
12 minutes and six calls go against them in a single outing.

PATTERSON'S SHORTYBrett Patterson finally got back on the scoresheet with an assist on Bullock's
goal Sunday, but his shorthanded goal the following night against UMass was his
first tally since Oct. 27 at Brown in the Ivy Shootout. Sikura had registered
the team's only two other shorthanded markers this year prior to Patterson's.

SIKURA'S SOLID STREAKWith a goal Sunday and a helper Monday, Sikura has a five-game point streak.
More impressive is the fact that the sophomore from Aurora, Ontario, has points
in all but one of Dartmouth's 13 games this year and has a team-leading 19.

STILL STRONGDespite UMass scoring twice on the power play and snapping
the Big Green's streak of 32 straight penalties killed off over a 10-game
stretch, Dartmouth's PK unit still ranks second in the nation. The Minutemen
were 2-for-11 on the night with the man-advantage after Dartmouth went
41-for-42 on the PK through the first 12 games. Currently, the Green's 94.3%
success rate ranks behind only UNH (94.9%), a team that Dartmouth scored a PPG
against in its match-up.

EXPECT A STRONG SECONDQuinnipiac and Dartmouth are two teams of four in ECAC
Hockey with 20 or more goals in any one period this season (Colgate, Union in
the 3rd). For both programs, that strong scoring stanza has been the second.
The Bobcats have found the back of the net 22 times in the middle frame this
year, while Dartmouth has done so 20 times. Both teams have also allowed just
nine goals apiece in the second period.

SCOUTING THE BOBCATSFriday's opponent is the hottest team in the country, riding
a 12-game unbeaten streak; five better than the next best team (Robert Morris).
Senior Jeremy Langlois and his 10 goals and 20 points lead Quinnipiac
offensively, but it's the defense that is the trademark of this year's team.
Goaltender Eric Hartzell is 14-2-2 and boasts a 1.43 goals-against average (3rd
best in the nation) and a .935 save percentage (13th). The Bobcats possess the second-best scoring
defense, allowing opponents just 1.58 goals per game. Overall, Quinnipiac is
14-3-2 and jumped up four spots in this week's USCHO poll to No. 5 after a home
sweep of No. 12 Nebraska-Omaha.

AGAINST THE BOBCATSDartmouth and Quinnipiac split the season series last year with each winning a
home game. The Big Green won a wild affair in Hanover with two last-minute
goals in the first meeting in November. The second saw Quinnipiac score twice
in the first before holding on to a 2-1 win in February. The Bobcats own a
10-7-1 advantage in the all-time series dating back to 2004.

SCOUTING THE TIGERSPrinceton will play host to Harvard Friday night before the
4 p.m. Saturday meeting with the Big Green. Fresh off an 0-1-1 weekend in
Burlington at the Catamount Cup, the Tigers are 3-7-3 overall and carry with
them a 2-3-3 ECAC Hockey mark. Princeton tied Merrimack, 2-2, before falling to
the hosts from Vermont, 6-3, in the title game. Sophomore Tyler Maugeri and
junior Andre Calof are tied for the team lead with 16 points apiece, while Mike
Condon has played goal in all but two games. Condon is 3-6-3 with a 2.71 GAA
and a .912 save percentage.

AGAINST THE TIGERSThe Big Green were 1-0-1 in 2011-12 against Princeton.
Dartmouth won the home game on Nov. 5 with a thrilling 5-3 victory. In the
early February game at Princeton, then-freshman Eric Neiley registered his
first two-goal game and helped the Green earn a 3-3 tie and crucial league
point. The second contest was delayed more than an hour due to three panes of
glass breaking at Hobey Baker Rink throughout the day. Saturday's matinee (4
p.m.) will be the 192nd meeting all-time between the two with Dartmouth leading
93-83-15.

ECAC HOCKEY FROM HERE ON OUTThe rest of the schedule is nothing but league games for the Big Green who will
not play the annual Battle for the RiverStone in Manchester since UNH came to
the Ledyard Classic. The remaining 16 regular season games and ECAC Hockey
Tournament will all be versus conference foes.

TERRIFIC AT THOMPSONThe loss to UMass was the first blemish on the Green's home
schedule so far this season. Entering Monday's game, Dartmouth had been 7-0-0
in games played on their own home ice, including two wins over teams ranked in
the top-10 (No. 8 Union and No. 2 New Hampshire).

WHAT A CROWD!Officially, the announced attendance inside Thompson Arena
on Sunday night was a sellout of 4,500 people. That figure ranks at the
ninth-highest single-game figure in the building's 37-year history. The highest
figure since Thompson opened its doors in the fall of 1975 was 5,048 against
Brown on Feb. 14, 1981 when maximum capacity was higher due to previous fire
code regulations.

SNAPPEDDustin Walsh saw his five-game point streak snapped against
New Hampshire as he was held off the scoresheet. That did little to his
confidence as he answered back with a pretty wrist shot under the crossbar in
the first period of Monday's game, his fifth marker of the season and the 49th
point of his career.

IVY LEAGUE UPDATEThe Big Green are second only to QU in the ECAC standings, but heading
into Saturday's game with Princeton are the Ivy League leaders with 5 points
and a 2-0-1 mark against Ivy foes. Harvard is second with 4 points and plays
fourth-place Princeton (2 pts) Friday night.